Old Time 'Grey's Anatomy'
It's Old Folks Night on "Grey's Anatomy."
Voiceover Meredith tries to trick us into thinking this week's episode is all about the truth and how it's sometimes hard to hear. Oh, and how most of the time doctors give patients their undivided attention, except when they're torturing their McHalfsister, like Meredith does in between rounds of having Secret Breakup Sex in a closet with McDreamy, or when they're haranguing their lover for having not yet told his wife he's cheating on her, like Izzie, or when they're faking left-at-the-altar depression to snag plum surgeries, like Cristina.
Out of the way, Old Intern! (Scott Garfield/ABC Studios)
In truth, this episode is about old people and how annoying they are. Like Edward Hermann who, after a lifetime as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Gilmore Girls patriarch and, apparently, in pharmaceuticals, has decided to become an intern, assigned to Alex, who tries to dump the guy because he smells like arthritis cream and as a bum hip.
Failing to dump Old Intern (OI), Alex defers to the guy when OI sides with a mom who thinks her sick son is doing drugs, which the kid denies.
Luckily, the kid shouts at his mom that she has apple hair and threw a pancake in the river -- or was it the other way around? -- which Alex recognizes as the classic symptom of a life threatening brain-liquidy thing which forces Alex to stick an elephant needle into the kid's eye socket. In the end, OI gets blamed, though Bailey does let Alex have it for deferring to OI.
Meanwhile, the comatose Really Old Guy (ROG) finally wakes up after a year, and tells Izzie he won't need any more dialysis because he's decided to die today. ROG the delivers this week's Cher's Snap-Out-of-It Speech to Izzie, in re her thinking George is going to dump his wife for her. Turns out all those times Izzie and gang used ROG's room for "private" conversations, ROG could hear them perfectly.
Izzie decides ROG can't die, though he wants to, because -- wait for it -- she needs him to give her daily advice about George. "I need you" she says. "I need you to tell m me what to do." Is there no end to the situations Izzie can make all about her?
ROG defies Izzie's orders and dies anyway, but she brings him back with the paddles, only he dies again to make a point after yelling at her to stop saving his life because it's not polite. Izzie gets the last laugh by forcing her friends to gather in ROG's room to say things about him in a kind of memorial service. And, of course, his having been really, really old give them license to mock him with comments like "He hardly ever farted."
Speaking of old, Chief and McSteamy get all riled up when they think George insinuates they're too old to understand the new technology needed to connect the nerves from the leg with the nerves from the tongue in the mouth of a woman who had to have 60 percent of her tongue removed and a piece of leg tissue grafted to what was left, so that she will be able to talk well enough to be understood.
Being men, McSteamy and Chief begin to bluster and swagger and decide they're going to wing it. Which they do, only McDreamy has to come save the day when they get stuck. Only because McDreamy is busy saving Cancer Tongue Lady, he's not free to save Brain Liquidy Guy, which is why Alex got to stick the elephant needle in the guy's eye.
And finally, George screws up the nerve to tell his wife he shagged Izzie, but only after telling Izzie he wanted to kill his wife because who marries someone who just buried his dad. Quite the man, our little George.
By Lisa de Moraes |
October 12, 2007; 9:49 AM ET
Grey's Anatomy
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Posted by: Tom | October 12, 2007 11:29 AM
I agree. Like the ROG says, it's just not polite to keep jerking something back from the grip of death.
In other news, who else sees a romance between McSteamy and McHalfSister from about 10,000 miles away? Oh poor Meredith and her pain.
Posted by: lumpster82 | October 12, 2007 11:58 AM
Seriously, these character need to get lives we can care about. And try for more realistic writing: I'm still waiting for Meredith to come down with PTSD from that business with the homemade mortar round.
Posted by: Daniel J. Drazen | October 12, 2007 11:58 AM
Worst. Show. Ever.
Posted by: dh | October 12, 2007 12:29 PM
Jumped the shark!
Posted by: jmb | October 12, 2007 02:45 PM
Jumped the shark. Precisely! In fact, based on a Grey's a few weeks back, they should update the phrase to "Shocked the Deer."
What was once a mature, quirky, character-driven show is now languishing as an immature, unrealistic, unbelievable mess of meandering, unlikable characters. Sigh.
Posted by: Joe Gish | October 12, 2007 02:58 PM
Awful! Caveman must be better.
Posted by: Michael | October 12, 2007 03:17 PM
It seems that all of the characters suffer from a new-found immaturity. Last year when Meredith was knocked into the water, I was rooting for the water. The show is no longer cute or funny... it's just twitty.
Posted by: waterfrontproperty | October 12, 2007 03:42 PM
and, seriously, is "PP" any better? Addison and that gang make me want to claw my eyes out. "PP" is banned from my TiVo and, after this week's whiny performance, so is "Grey's."
ick.
Posted by: any better? | October 12, 2007 04:10 PM
"Shocked the deer" - love it!
I had sworn not to waste another minute on this show after the terrible coupling of Izzy & George (all together now..."Ewww!") and the departure of the only two characters I cared about, though Isaiah Washington deserved to be fired. Curiousity got the best of me and I tuned into the seaon premiere just in time to see the "I am Bambi" trainwreck. Never watching again!
Posted by: Former Fan | October 12, 2007 05:32 PM
C'mon now. Yes, the end of last night's episode was pretty gutless....and just down right bad...like overcooked pasta. But, please....these characters were always self-involved....and they have always been a bit twitty....that's the charm of it...we don't have to see them from the froggy perspective looking at gods...they're fallible, and its fun to see them screw up. Though I had vowed, after last season's good-grief-awful ending, never to watch again, I have now found myself enjoying it for its entertainment value. I don't need high-brow entertainment from this,....just a little fun. And Isaiah Washington...please throw him in the river....he clearly has some homophobic psychological issues that make me cringe every time I watch one of those old episodes.
Posted by: watcher | October 12, 2007 05:51 PM
Why do I get the feeling that the SAME person is writing all these comments using different names.That is sooo lame, what is it that Grey's Anatomy has done to you?
The writers are trying their best to write the script each week and the actors are doing their best to make the show believable and enjoyable so please cut them some slack mr or misses whoever you are.
If you seriously dont like the show, then stop watching it and complain, you should go watch something else or go to your bed, and let people who really care about the show and the characters enjoy it while it last.
I have stopped watching television for a while because the stuff I see on is just not interesting enough. However, Greys Anatomy has given me reason to watch tv again...so please give them a break .
Posted by: Milo77 | October 13, 2007 08:53 AM
The post right before this one HAS to have been written by a teenaged girl.
Posted by: waterfrontproperty | October 15, 2007 03:33 PM
RE; The post right before this one HAS to have been written by a teenaged girl.
Posted by: waterfrontproperty
It matters not who wrote the post.Be it a kindergartener,a teenager or a grandma, the fact remains; the writers are doing their best and the actors are doing what they are being paid to do... which is to act.I wonder how many scripts/ books you have written , do you even know what it means to be a writer?let me tell you its a lot of work and at the end of the day all the writers are looking for from the viewers/audience is a little appreciation for their efforts.. so if you do not appreciate what you see on the show , then for peace sake ...STOP WATCHING IT.
Posted by: | October 15, 2007 05:22 PM
I agree with pretty much ALL of the posts here today! This show and it's characters suck the air out of my TV when I channel surf right by...but as has been noted, if you don't like it, don't watch it. Everyone has their favorites that somebody will always claim is the worst thing since (fill in the blank), and no amount of cajoling will get them to change their minds. The classic "Three Stooges" scenario. You either get it...or you don't. Move on. LOL
Posted by: Cinque | October 15, 2007 06:28 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
Gray's has run it course. Let's put it out of its misery gently.